The Balkan peninsula, which had been raised to a high level of security and prosperity during the Roman dominion, gradually relapsed into barbarism as a result of these endless invasions; the walled towns, such as Salonika and Constantinople, were the only safe places, and the country became waste and desolate.

In a locality where the judges cannot enter the immersion chamber (such as Salonika, where the ritual bath was situated in the women’s bathhouse), a female convert may immerse in the presence of three women, who are the agents of the court, after having accepted the yoke of the commandments [i.e., before the members of the court] outside the ritual bath (Mishpetei Ouziel, Even ha-Ezer [1935 ed.], para.